Logical Deficiencies in Spatial Models: A Constructive Critique.

A fundamental property of any good theory is logical consistency. However, two common assumptions in the rational choice approach to political analysis (that induced preferences over policy are separable and that such preferences are independent of changes in exogenous factors) are not consistent with the archetypal assumptions of individual utility maximization. These particular pathologies of spatial models of politics have not been well recognized in the political science literature. Copyright 2000 by Kluwer Academic Publishers